Listening to the Answers to the Questions You Present as a Leader

THE SITUATION: I once worked for a guy who thought it was great to "teach" us all how to get through problem solving "his way" with no exceptions or alternatives. I sat in a meeting one day when he first took over, and every answer I said was wrong. A few months later, after hearing the same things come out of his mouth over and over, he asked the group the same questions and suddenly I was getting all the answers "right"! He actually pulled me aside after this meeting and congratulated me for having "learned so much" over the last few months, and answering all the questions right.

I have to say that I learned the LEAST about leadership and actual problem solving from him than any other leader I had before or since. And I never did tell him about it because he thought he was great! 

THE LESSON: I don't advocate negative thinking, so I learned something very positive from this experience which I hope that I was able to show in my own leadership from then on: LISTEN to the answers given by your colleagues and employees when you ask questions as their boss. If you are in charge, you don't have to constantly remind people that you are in charge by "teaching" them to answer your questions with only the answers you desire.

Any monkey-minded follower can tell you what you want to hear or what you have told them to say. But it takes a real leader to listen to the answers to his or her questions and consider them before making decisions that affect everyone.